The invention is in the field of screeds utilized to smooth the surface of construction materials, such as freshly laid concrete, stucco, and plaster.
Conventional screeds are a type of hand tool used in finishing concrete, cement, stucco, plaster and the like to provide a smooth surface. As the screeds are hand worked, it is important to use light weight material to make the screeds. However, it is also important that the screeds resist bending or warping in order to ensure a flat or smooth surface is left after the screed is applied to the material being laid and finished.
Because of these requirements, aluminum has conventionally been used for screeds as it satisfies most requirements and is relatively inexpensive. In order to keep weight down, screeds are often rectangular in cross section and hollow; however, in order to retain resistance to bending under load or warping, the interior has an x-shaped support that extends between opposed corners of the screed and runs the entire length thereof. The x-shape essentially forms four triangles and triangles are the most stable construction element.
Finally, the ends of the rectangular shaped tube forming the screen has open ends that are covered by plates to prevent building materials, such as concrete, from filing the interior which would greatly increase the working weight of the screed.
In order to prevent materials from entering the interior, end caps or plates have typically been welded to the ends. In the overall process of making the screed, the body is easily extruded; however, in the current art, the addition of the end cap by welding and subsequent sanding to smooth edges, adds significant steps to the process of making the screed, which results in substantial added cost due to additional man hours spent to add the caps.